I’ve posted videos of wingsuit base jumpers before, but this compilation from Michael provides some new (to me) footage along with some I’ve posted before. I’m sure you’ll recognize Loïc Jean-Albert…

Let me reiterate that this isn’t “flying” in the usual sense of the word. It’s more “controlled free falling.” They’re definitely going down. Fast! It’s insane, but can you imagine the rush?

Hint: For a better viewing experience, move your cursor off the video after beginning play.

The biggest sporting event of the year has arrived. Super Bowl XLIII, or 43 for those whose education omitted Roman numerals, is here. The favored Steelers are hoping to make history with what could be their sixth NFL championship. The underdog Cardinals are looking to gain some respect by winning the franchise’s first Super Bowl. Conditions will be sunny and clear in Tampa Bay, Florida. With Bruce Springsteen performing at halftime and an estimated $3 million spent on 30 second commercial breaks, this Super Bowl promises to be a great game.

People have been asking me all week which team I think will take the trophy, and for a while I was non-committal, telling them that the Steeler defense would be hard to penetrate. I still believe that, but I’m going with the Cards. I believe this is their post season and I think they’ll win despite the line heavily favoring Pittsburg.

Here’s how I see it going down. Edge and Hightower will deliver a decent running game, subbing for each other so neither tires out. Warner will continue to throw to Fitz and Anquan will explode after another tirade like the one he threw during the conference championship game. That’ll get everyone’s emotions running high.

I also like the Cardinals’ defense; they’ve been keeping some great offenses in check. I know everyone is talking about the Steeler D, but I think the Cards great offense and good defense trumps the Steelers’ strong defense and sub-par offense.

I’m expecting a close game which will surprise many of you who are primed for a trouncing. The Cards by 3 in an upset.

With the memory of Barbaro’s death after last year’s Preakness still fresh in our minds, Saturday’s Kentucky Derby spectators saw for themselves the sordid truth about what racing really means for the horses involved, as the filly Eight Belles collapsed, her front ankles broken, and had to be euthanised on the track.

Her death may have seemed humane, but the agony she endured running her final race most certainly was not. And while the trainers, jockeys and owners may weep their crocodile tears today over Eight Belles’ euthanasia, they will be back on the track tomorrow, putting other horses at risk.

Although their bones are not yet fully developed, Thoroughbreds begin their racing careers as 2-year-olds. Compounding the risk to their young bones, they are raced on hard dirt surfaces like the one at Churchill Downs. And as Eight Belles’ two broken front legs showed Saturday, the combination is deadly.

Despite the wealth and glamour associated with Thoroughbred racing, there exists a dark underbelly that most of us never see. For the horses, life isn’t much different than it was for the ancient Roman gladiators. Some live, some die, but most end up broken, cast off, or sent to Europe to be killed for the dinner table. It’s a dirty business, not much better than dog fighting.

I hope people finally come to their senses and recognize that Thoroughbred horse racing, as it’s conducted today, is barbaric and in need of immediate and drastic reform. It should be a no-brainer that these magnificent animals should not be trained or raced until age three when their bones are fully formed. Equally obvious should be the need for cushioned tracks like those used in California. And the number of races a horse is allowed to run per season should be limited, another no-brainer. Finally, whipping should be disallowed. If no one is allowed to whip, the playing field remains level.

It’s rare to find me on the same side of an issue as PETA, but that’s exactly where I stand on this one, at least as regards the need for reform. They’re calling for the Kentucky Racing Authority to institute sweeping reforms that would stop much of the suffering. Story

They’ve made it simple. Complete this form email to the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority to insist that they take immediate steps to prevent future tragedies. It’s a simple gesture requiring little effort on our parts yet making our voices heard. It’s the right thing to do.

Great game notwithstanding, for some the Super Bowl is all about the commercials. There were some pretty good ones this year. These were some of my favorites:

Bud Light - Breathe Fire

Pepsi - Magnetic Attraction

Diet Pepsi Max - What is Love

Audi - Truth in Engineering

Budweiser - Clydesdale Team

FedEx - Carrier Pigeons

Bud Light - Wheel Suck

Bud Light - Jackie Moon

In what was perhaps one of the best Super Bowl games in recent memory and maybe the most watched in Super Bowl history, the New York Giants ripped victory from the jaws of the New England Patriots with 35 seconds remaining in the game to clinch the title and spoil the Pats’ hopes for a record 19-0 perfect season. The Patriots had one last gasp to try to regain their lead and save the game, but Tom Brady’s desperation pass on fourth down fell incomplete. NFL Game Center has the stats and key plays.

Dawn and I watched the game with a group of close friends on Michael & Sisko’s new 73-inch Hi-Def flat screen TV. Now, that’s the way to watch the Super Bowl! We still had all the yelling and screaming those at UofP Stadium experienced, but with far better seats, much better company and, without a doubt, way better food. After the game, we retired to our hosts’ cigar room and enjoyed some of Michael’s finest, perfectly paired with appropriate wines and engaging conversation. It was a wonderful Super Bowl party!

Today I’ll be licking my wounds, paying off a couple of bets I’d made on the Pats, and collecting on one I made (no points!) on the Giants. All in all I came out about even.

Mike sent this in response to last week’s post about exotic juices. A hidden camera settles the debate once and for all…

I was going to post something this morning about the NFL cheerleaders participating in this year’s big game. But the Giants don’t even have official cheerleaders! How lame is that?

Let’s face it, the Super Bowl has evolved into a colossal economic event. From hotels, to commercials, to ticket sales, it dwarfs every other sports event by a mile. And when it comes to the reselling of tickets, the melding of technology and the law of supply and demand have created a buying frenzy nothing short of “shock and awe.” This years average ticket price? $4,322!

Here’s the breakdown: University of Phoenix Stadium will seat 75,000 for Super Bowl XLII. The Patriots and Giants each received 17.5 percent of the available tickets. After the teams dealt with their own needs (key sponsors, owners and others), each held ticket lotteries to distribute the remaining tickets to their season ticket holders. Usually, Super Bowl teams weight the lottery based on the number of years someone has been a season ticket holder. The Cardinals received 5 percent for hosting the game. The other 29 NFL teams split 34.8 percent of the tickets. Most tickets allotted to individual teams are shared with corporate sponsors and season-ticket holders. The NFL offices retained 25.2 percent of the seats, most of which end up with sponsors and league officials. The 1,000 tickets made available to the public come out of the league’s share.

Face value for Super Bowl XLII tickets is $700 and $900, but “Street” or resell prices surge close to $4,000. Asking prices for tomorrow’s game range from $2,450 to $19,446 at StubHub, a unit of eBay Inc. and the biggest of the online resellers. Officials there say the average price so far is $4,300 for tickets that the National Football League originally priced at either $700 or $900.

How much did tickets cost for Super Bowl I? $6 and $12. And the Los Angeles Coliseum, the host of Super Bowl I, wasn’t even sold out that first Super Sunday when the Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs!

So most of us will be watching the game from the comfort of our living rooms on big screen TVs. We’ll have better seats, instant replay, cheaper beer and better company. Is it the same as being there? Of course not. But we won’t have to mortgage our homes to enjoy the game, either.

How do I predict the game will end? Well, I never predict. But after the Patriots win their fourth Super Bowl in seven years and become only the second team in National Football League history to finish an entire NFL season undefeated (Dolphins in 1972, 17-0), I’ll collect my winnings and talk about the game with dear friends while we sip a little wine and perhaps light up a fine Cuban. Later, Dawn and I will drive home, about a 25 minute trip, and think, ever so briefly and with a smile, about the poor fools who paid a big chunk of their annual salaries to see the game at UP Stadium and are now stuck in two hours of heavy traffic trying to get back to their hotels. Yes, life is good.

So I was flipping through my friend Steve Jobs’ diary (honest!) and discovered that he doesn’t particularly care for football. Wasn’t even aware of Sunday’s Super Bowl. Seems he’s partial to European sports like cycling and cross-country skiing, and thinks it’s outrageous that we don’t have tai chi on television in this country the way they do in every country in Asia. Who knew?

Well, I and everyone else I know will certainly be watching the big game. And the megabuck ads. Fox is asking as much as $2.6 million to $3 million for a 30 second spot!

Did Steve buy one? Apple’s not on the lineup but, with Steve, you never know.

This just in from Mike…

In a news conference earlier this morning, Deanna Favre announced she will be the starting QB for the Green Bay Packers during the Playoffs. She claims she is qualified to be starting QB because she has spent the past 16 years married to Brett while he played QB for the Pack. Because of this, she understands how to pick up a corner blitz and knows the terminology of the Packers offense.

A poll of Packers fans shows that 50% of those polled support the move.

Sounds absurd, doesn’t it? Yet Hillary Clinton makes essentially the same claims as to why she is qualified to be President… And 50% of democrats polled agree.

This week’s “flyby” is a follow-up to an earlier post featuring Loïc Jean-Albert, this one perhaps more extreme than the first. I won’t go into what base jumping and wingsuits are all about; they’re explained in the earlier post. I will reiterate, however, that this isn’t “flying” in the true sense of the word. It’s more “controlled free falling.”

Albert’s answer to a question early in this clip explains what drives base jumping wingsuit flyers: “We get a little bored…” They’re adrenaline junkies, always needing to push the envelope for an ever greater rush.

Enjoy the ride!

This is an older video, circa 2003 I believe, showing Loïc Jean-Albert in a wingsuit “flying” down a mountain in Verbier, Switzerland at about 15 feet above the surface, literally a “human glider.”

Wingsuit flying is the art of flying the human body through the air using a special jumpsuit, called a wingsuit, that shapes the human body into an airfoil which can create lift. The wingsuit creates the airfoil shape with fabric sewn between the legs and under the arms. A wingsuit can be flown from any point that provides sufficient altitude to glide through the air, such as skydiving aircraft or BASE jumping exit points. The flier will deploy a parachute at a planned altitude and unzip the arm wings so they can reach up to the parachute control toggles and fly to a normal skydiving or BASE jumping landing.

The wingsuit doesn’t actually allow one to “fly”, at least not in the traditional sense of the word. While the “flyer” does have some directional control, he (or she) cannot gain or maintain altitude. Make no mistake, he’s still falling. Fast. The sport is apparently an offshoot of traditional skydiving adding an even greater adrenalin rush. It may also have some basis in the 1969 Burt Lancaster film, The Gypsy Moths in which a group of barnstorming skydivers employs a “wingsuit” of sorts with disastrous results.

Dawn asks, “What happens when you have nothing to do, own a sharp knife, have a large lime, own a patient cat, drink too much tequila and it’s football season?” Well…

Have a great weekend! Some good Week 4 NFL action Sunday. And try to get out and catch some of the fall colors!

I grew up in Miami and remember it as primarily a football town. Baseball was an “also ran” sport. Apparently it still is if this news story is any indication. During a recent game between the Florida Marlins and the Washington Nationals, there were only 400 fans in a stadium that can seat nearly 75,000…

Could it be that the exorbitant salaries payed to major league baseball players have finally driven ticket prices beyond the reach of Miami fans? Larry? Ken?

Grandson Dakota is pretty involved in sports, playing league soccer and basketball, and running track as well. He had a tournament weekend before last and Dawn and I attended Saturday’s game. They went on to win the tournament Sunday.

I had taken my camera and a “walk-around” lens which was, unfortunately, not quite up to the task of shooting action sports from that distance. Nonetheless, I grabbed a few descent shots (most of which required cropping) and have posted them for your perusal.

I was amazed to notice in the image below just how much Dakota (right) looks like his dad at that age! I’m also amazed that these kids are able to play in this heat - it was over 100 degrees! But it was a great game for the team and the spectators.